


The Perils of Localized Time Reversal

by Drownedinlight



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8825899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drownedinlight/pseuds/Drownedinlight
Summary: Miranda Coburn never expected to get a knock at her door, telling her that her husband had been regressively aged into a seven-year-old. She's sure that the loved one of the Waverider crew didn't expect it either. But now she's helping to raise those children back into adults in the temporal zone, hoping and praying the time masters don't find them before the children can become Legends once more.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was greatly inspired by [coldflashwave-baby's tumblr post about the Legends getting de-aged.](http://coldflashwave-baby.tumblr.com/post/143547748448/someone-should-write-a-legends-of-tomorrow-deaging) I ran with the version where Mick is the only adult left on board, but soon had a thought that what if Mick realizes he's in over his head with seven kids and goes to get help. He might go back to 2016, but since this takes place after Mick comes back from being Kronos, he's probably more likely to go to Miranda instead. Since Rip never told Mick of his rescue attempts, and the time masters never told Kronos they were watching Miranda and Jonas, I think it's reasonable that he could get them out. The rest is probably just gonna be shenanigans, while they're waiting for the crew to reage. 
> 
> I have also borrowed some elements from nirejseki's cannon--such as the name of Mick's ship's AI (Ginny), and I believe the name of Mick's ship (the _Revenge_ ). I think the _Revenge_ may have been someone else, so drop me a line if you know who and I'll update my notes. Cheers and enjoy the ride!

Whatever Miranda Coburn had expected when she answered the door, it had not been a perfectly enormous, tall man with a shaved head and a flame retardant jacket.

“You Miranda Hunter?” he asked.

“Coburn,” she said, the automatic timing of the correction years in the making.

“Right, but you’re married to Rip Hunter?”

Miranda hesitates a beat, trying to get an assessment of the man. He looks nothing like Vandal Savage’s men--no uniform, and there’s something wild in his eyes. He’s also too clean to be a member of the rebellion. Something about the clothing though...

“Are you or aren’t you lady?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, realizing nobody wore clothes like he did any more. “Are you a time master?”

The man snorts. “They wish. Hunter recruited me on a mission to help stop Vandal Savage. Not sanctioned by the time masters. But we’ve run into a complication--I don’t know how to handle it, and you’re the only person I know of who might.”

“What sort of complication?” Miranda asked.

“Might not be the best place to explain--we’re on a timeline.” The man steps back slightly out of their doorway to look around.

“We’re all on a timeline,” said Miranda. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back in. “Now, tell me what sort of complication, or I won’t go with you.”

He huffed, then grinned at her. “Oh, I like you. You got balls, lady, I’ll give you that. Alright. Hunter and the rest of the crew have been turned into children. Now get your boy and quick, we got company.”

Miranda could study the man as long as she wanted, but her instincts told her to listen to him. She ran into the house. Jonas slept on the couch in the sitting room--she had stopped letting him sleep upstairs after the first bombing. The strange man had followed her. He lifted Jonas up without trying to wake him.

“Back door?” the stranger asked.

Miranda grabbed a go bag (one of five stashed in the most convenient places around the house) and ran on. They made it out the back door just as someone started shooting. Miranda did not scream--she refused to. She let the stranger take the lead instead as he ran through the gardens until they came to the end of the row. Then he pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a single button. Before Miranda’s eyes the camouflaged settings of a time ship descended, leaving the ship in plain sight.

They boarded, again without a word.

The Stranger set Jonas down in a passenger chair, letting Miranda strap him in as he took the Captain’s seat. “Ginny!” he yelled. “Lock on coordinates for 1911--anywhere in the world that isn’t London.”

“Yes, Captain Rory,” said the ship’s AI.

Miranda had only just managed to strap herself in when they made the jump. She didn’t speak as Captain Rory made three more jumps, before commanding Ginny to make a jump to 1960 in what appeared to be the middle of the woods. Miranda couldn’t quite tell as her vision had started to blur and she was fighting the urge to throw up.

“Mummy?” Jonas asked. He must have woken up during one of the time jumps. Poor child must be frightened. “Mum? Where are we?”

“We’re time traveling,” said Miranda turning toward him. When she had managed to keep her stomach contents down after the short sentence, she spoke again. “Daddy and his crew need our help so we’re going to go and see them.”

“Alright, lad?” asked Captain Rory, once he turned his seat around to look at them.

Jonas looked up at the tall man, slack jawed. He nodded, though, in reference to the man’s question. “Are...” Jonas trailed off, still looking a bit in awe of the man before him. “Are you really taking me to see my Daddy?”

“Yeah, kid,” said Captain Rory. “But he’s had an accident, so right now he’s your age.”

“Really?” Jonas asked, his face breaking into a smile.

“Where is Rip and his crew, incidentally?” Miranda asked. She had regained a firm control of her stomach and her vision had stopped blurring. Now in control of her faculties it was time to ask more questions.

“On the _Waverider_ ,” said Captain Rory. He held out a hand and waved it around at the interior of his ship. “This is the _Revenge_. I piloted it for a while, before we left it in 1960, which is why we’re back here. I didn’t want to bring the _Waverider_ to come and get you. We’re sorta fugitives from the Time Masters right now too. Figured they might have a way to find the ship.”

Miranda nodded. It was a simplistic explanation, but he wasn’t wrong. “And the _Waverider_ is close by?”

“We should be within thirty or forty feet of it,” said Captain Rory. “Ginny, bring us around port side and attach to the _Waverider_ through its secondary jumpship hatch.”

“Yes, Captain Rory.”

Miranda felt the _Revenge_ lift off again, though this time it simply sailed on the air as it attached to the _Waverider._

“Ginny, cede primary functions to Gideon and go into standby mode for now,” said Captain Rory, releasing his harness.

“Yes, Captain Rory, standby mode engaged.”

Miranda disengaged her harness before helping Jonas with his. With one hand firmly grasped around her son’s and the other around her go bag, she followed Captain Rory as they disembarked from the _Revenge_ directly onto the _Waverider._ “Where is everyone?”

“Should still be in the brig,” said Captain Rory.

“You locked children in the brig?” she said, failing very much to keep her voice down.

Captain Rory only rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so the children wouldn’t go running around on a timeship they know nothing about. I left’em food and blankets and there’s facilities there. They’ll be fine.” With that, he strode on, leaving Miranda no choice but to follow him.

The children were actually sleeping as they made their way into the brig. A quick count revealed three young boys, two young girls, and a baby of indetermined gender. The children slept mostly in a pile, apart from the eldest of them, a gangly boy with sandy, blond hair. The boy opened his eyes as they entered, revealing he did not sleep at all.

“You’re back!” he said in a hushed whisper.

“You can talk normal,” said Captain Rory. “S’okay if they wake up.”

“They all _just_ went to sleep,” said the sandy-haired boy. “I’m not waking them back up. Leonard cried himself all the way to sleep. Please, I don’t know what you want, I’ll give it to you. Just let me, ah, and the others of course go back home.”

“They don’t know?” asked Miranda. She looked the boy up and down, checking for any obvious signs of ill-health “About being time travelers.”

“They did at first,” said Rory. “We all got hit with this beam thingy that a hunter was after us with. Then everyone goes to sleep--I stay up of course and then the next thing you know they’re all kids. They all remember but they’re all kids. They go to sleep again, they wake up and now they’re kids and they don’t know what’s goin’ on. That’s when I decided I was in over my head.”

Miranda nodded. “Well, we should probably let them out of the brig.”

Captain Rory nodded. “Gideon--lock down all unsafe areas for the rest of the crew. That includes the kitchen without an adult.”

“Yes, Mr. Rory,” said the _Waverider’s_ AI, Gideon.

With that, Captain Rory pressed a combination into the brig door and the door opened. “You can come out if you want,” he said.

The boy hesitated. “Are you going to experiment on me?” he asked.

“I might need to look you over,” said Miranda. “But that’s because you’re ill, and Captain Rory and I want to help you get better. He only placed you in there because there was no one else to mind you, and he didn’t want the children getting hurt. Now, my name’s Miranda Coburn, what’s yours?”

“Martin Stein,” said the boy. “But everyone calls me Marty, Dr. Coburn.” He looked her in the eye as he spoke, a little color running into his cheeks.

She’d take Dr. Coburn if it meant he weren’t afraid. “Alright, then Marty. This is my son, Jonas.” Jonas waved a little, from where he was hiding behind her slightly. “And you’ve met Captain Rory.”

“Mick’s fine,” said Captain Rory.

Marty looked slightly shocked at that, as if an adult had never before given him permission to call them by their first name. “Um, alright,” he said. “Is part of my being ill why I can’t touch the baby? I know baby’s have a smaller immune system, so you shouldn’t be around them if you’re sick and you can help it.”

Miranda opened her mouth to fabricate some sort of truth, but then Mick said, “You can’t touch the baby because he might turn into a flying, on fire baby.”

That caught him stares from Jonas, Marty and Miranda. “What?” she managed to ask after a moment.

Mick paused as he took in their shock. “Dunno how it works. But when they were big, they’d touch and then Jax’d become on fire and he’d be able to fly. Not sure a baby could handle that.”

They haven’t even begun, and Miranda feels she might need a reprieve. “I don’t suppose you can stay with the children, while I take Marty to the infirmary for an examination?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Mick.

 

Several hours later, as Miranda reviews her chart notes on Marty, and the examinations Gideon had made before everyone had lost their memories, Mick Rory walked in looking all of 16, with the other children behind him, and the baby in his arms. Marty and Jonas lie dozing in the infirmary examination chairs. “Oh, dear,” she said, suddenly feeling quite tired herself. “Do you still remember who you are, or are you sixteen in mind now as well?”

“Still remember,” said Mick. “‘s the first time I’ve slept since the whole thing. Lenny woke up after a nightmare, and fell back asleep on me and the next thing I know I’m out. Woke up like this. Feel like I could sleep for another day.”

“No more naps,” said a blue eyed boy who has Mick’s hand firmly in his.

“Lenny, don’t shout,” said Mick, rolling his eyes. “You’ll scare Jax.”

Lenny--this might be the Leonard that Martin mentioned earlier--jumped at Mick’s declaration, and suddenly became bashful, hiding behind Mick’s leg. “Sorry,” Miranda though she heard him mumble.

“Can we got home yet?” asked a black haired boy. “My tutors will be missing me by now.”

“Do you mean your parents, dear?” Miranda asked.

The black haired boy shook his head. “No, I won’t see my parents until Saturday. But my tutors will know I’m gone.”

Miranda admitted it to herself--she stumbled on that one. She supposed that she had been raised from orphan-hood to adulthood by an organization rather than a set of parents, but still for someone who was not a time master a lack of parents seemed odd. “Well, not just yet, dear. My name is Dr. Miranda Coburn. And I’m here because you’re all ill. You don’t need to be scared, I’m going to help you get better. But until you’re better, you need to stay here with me.”

A blonde haired girl raised her hand.

“Yes dear?” Miranda asked.

“My name’s Sara, Dr. Miranda. Won’t our mommies and daddies and tutors miss us?” she asked.

“Of course, they’ll miss you,” said Miranda. “But...I’m sure they’ll come to visit. Meanwhile, it’s going to be like a sleepover, alright? You’ve all spent the night with a friend, I’m sure.”

The children nodded. And because they currently think like children, and she’s a doctor, they trusted her by the simplest of details. Miranda realized that she had to make sure they were safe--had to make sure that they stayed safe.

The second little girl raised her hand. “Dr. Miranda, I’m hungry, can we have something to eat?”

“Yes we may,” said Miranda. “Mick, if you would lead onto the kitchen, I’ll rouse Marty and Jonas and we’ll be on our way.”

Marty stumbled as he walked on, but made it to the kitchen in one piece. Jonas required a bit more persuasion, but pancakes were a sufficient enough bribe for all the children. Surprisingly, said bribe was offered up by Mick, who mixed and cooked the cakes on a hot griddle, provided by Gideon.

Miranda, who held Jax in her arms as Mick cooked, smiled down at all the children. “Well, I know some of your names. We have Jax, and Mick, and Marty, and Sara, and Lenny. If I’m not mistaken. But I am missing a few names.”

“My name’s Kendra,” said the second young girl, her smile wide and bright. Freckles dotted her dark skin on her face--making her even more adorable than she already was.

“My name is Ray Palmer,” said the dark haired boy.

The last boy Miranda did already know, but she still turned her eyes on him. He looked back at her, wary. “My name’s Michael,” he said. “But I don’t think you’re a doctor at all.”

“Oh?” she asked. “Then what am I, Michael?”

“You’re a Time Master,” said Michael. “Because we’re on a time ship. Mick said that we’d all been made younger by a sort of time ray. I think you’re going to make us better, but you’re not a doctor.”

“I can be a doctor and a Time Master, Michael,” she said.

Michael blinked and then cocked his head to one side. “Can you?”

“I can indeed.” And truth be told, she was more doctor than Time Master. After she had left the Time Masters’ collective she had needed something to do between Rip’s sporadic visits.

“So are we on a spaceship?” Ray asked.

“A time ship,” said Michael. “All Time Master’s have them.”

“Enough about Time Masters,” said Mick. “Pancakes are ready.”

Each of the children clamored for pancakes, but Mick somehow managed to simultaneously ignore them and distribute two pancakes per person. He drizzled more batter onto the griddle to let the second batch cook as they ate.

“Doc,” said Mick, catching Miranda’s eye as she fed a honied piece of pancake to young Jax. “I’ve been thinking. If I go to sleep again, I’m not gonna remember what all happened that led up to this. And, well, I was not a lot of fun to handle at sixteen.”

“Everyone’s a handful at sixteen,” Miranda remarked, dabbling Jax’s face with a wet napkin.

“Not everyone’s committed arson by sixteen,” said Mick, dryly as he rolled his eyes. “Twice.”

That gave Miranda pause until Jonas asked, “Mummy, what’s arson?”

“It’s a very specific kind of naughty,” said Miranda, quickly. “One which Mick is not going to do anymore.” Until now, she had assumed that Mick, even at sixteen, would be able to help manage the other, younger children. And while they would occasionally be more than she would care to manage, she supposed that she could do it with a little help. But now, Miranda began to doubt that.

“Alright,” Miranda asked, looking Mick in the eye. “What do you suggest?”

“I’m gonna need a camera,” said Mick as he flipped a pancake. “And we need to get back to 2016.”

Whatever was in 2016 would have to wait for a later explanation as Jax began crying for more pancakes, and Lenny and Michael started fighting over someone who had stolen a pancake.

Scratch that, thought Miranda. She would definitely need some help.

 

Cisco didn’t quite know what to believe as a giant space ship touched down in the STAR Labs parking lot just as he was getting in for a day of work. But he knew enough to call Barry and without explanation say, “Dude, you need to get to STAR Labs, ASAP.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The _Waverider_ lands in 2016, and the gang's nearly all here. Mcik, falls asleep again and looses the memories he had as an adult.

By the time they landed in 2016, Miranda realized she very much did need help. Mick and Marty were only able to coral the younger children so much. Marty seemed a little put out by it all, but Mick didn’t bat an eyelash, even when Sara climbed onto his shoulders by grabbing onto his hair.

Lenny, when he saw Sara perched on Mick’s shoulders he came over and tugged on Mick’s pant leg. When Mick bent over, Lenny leaned up and whispered something in Mick’s ears. Mick’s face flickered nearly imperceptibly, but there was something almost hard in his eyes. “No, Lenny, you don’t gotta go back to your dad. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Don’t you miss your daddy, Lenny?” Sara asked.

Lenny shook his head.

“Why not?” Sara asked.

Lenny said something Miranda could not quite hear.

“Sara, Lenny’s dad’s not very nice,” said Mick. “And it’s not nice to talk about when moms and dads aren’t nice.”

“Oh,” said Sara. She looked somewhat perplexed, perhaps by the idea of a parent not being nice to their child. After a moment, though, she shrugged and said, “Okay.”

They had landed, and Miranda surveyed the nine children in her care (including Mick), wondering how she was going to get them all together out of the _Waverider_ and into STAR Laboratories, when Mick gave a little whistle. The children all turned toward him.

“We need to line up now, we’re gonna go youngest to oldest. Now who’s the youngest?”

“I’m six!” Kendra shouted, raising her hand and jumping in the air.

“I’m six too!” said Sara from Mick’s shoulders. “But you can be line leader, Kendra. I got to yesterday at school. Mick, let me down so I can line up!”

Mick reached on his shoulder and lifted Sara up and over his head. She squealed as he did, and then she ran to line up behind Kendra, taking Kendra’s hand as she did. “Lenny!” Sara said. “You’re seven, come line up behind me.”

Lenny looked up at Mick, who nodded at him and gave him a little nudge. Lenny smiled at him and went over to take Sara’s hand.

“I’m seven too!” said Michael running over to take Lenny’s hand.

Jonas declared himself to be eight and lined up after Michael, and then Ray, who was nine, then Marty, who was indeed thirteen. Mick brought up the rear, and Miranda positioned herself in front holding Jax in her arms.

“Are we ready?” Miranda asked.

“Yes,” the children chimed back at her.

Miranda smiled, raising Jax’s hand in a little wave. “Let’s go!” she said, waving her hand over the cargo bay reader and opening the door.

Two men waited near the door of STAR Laboratories. They were still some distance away, but Miranda could see their shoulder’s stiffen at the sight of children and a young woman exiting the time ship. The _Waverider,_ upon their disembarkation, cloaked itself and disappeared from the naked eye.

“I hope Caitlin doesn’t hit that with her car,” said the shorter of the two men.

“Are we expecting any children from outer space?” the taller man asked.

The shorter punched him in the chest. “Dude, be serious. They might be aliens in tiny, adorable, little suits.”

Miranda couldn’t help but chuckle. “We’re all of Earth origins, I can assure you.”

“Oh yeah? What year did Doctor Who premier?” as the shorter man.

“1963,” said Miranda, a wide smile on her face. “Then again in 2005. Ask me a hard question next time.”

“I will,” said the shorter man.

They had breached the gap between them now, the children coming to a stop in front of the tall man. He smiled down at all of them. Many of the children smiled back at him. Lenny, however, shied down, behind Sara.

“I suppose I ought to introduce myself. I’m Miranda Coburn—I believe you know of my husband, Rip Hunter?”

The two men nodded. “We’ve heard of him,” said the tall man. He turned back to the children and squinted. “Oh my God… Cisco, look at these kids.”

“I see them,” said Cisco.

“No, _look_ at them,” said the tall man. “They’re the same people that went on the time travel mission.”

Miranda blinked at his perceptiveness. She felt a little robbed of a grand reveal, but at the same time relieved that she wouldn’t have to prove herself beyond a doubt.

“No they’re—dios mio, they are,” said Cisco, his eyes going wide. “Where are the big ones?”

“We _are_ the big ones,” said Mick. “We didn’t get pulled from the time stream at these ages. A bounty hunter the Time Masters sent aged us down.”

“Heatwave?” the two of them chorused, their jaws falling to the pavement.

“Sup?” he asked. “Now are you going to let us in? Being out in the cold isn’t good for the little ones.”

As if on cue, Jax began to sneeze.

Cisco and Barry—as she learned the tall man was called—hurried to let them into the lab. Cisco then led them all to a lounge where there were plenty of toys and puzzles that he laid out for the kids while Barry made a frantic call to someone called Caitlin. Then he put in a call to someone called Oliver, which was much shorter. Calls finished, he reported back, “Caitlin—she’s a geneticist that works here with us, Miranda—says that she’ll be by as soon as she can get in touch with Clarissa and Mrs. Jackson, so they can come and see Dr. Stein and Jax.”

“Dr. Stein?” Miranda asked.

“Uh, Martin,” said Barry, blinking. “He’s probably not Dr. Stein just yet.”

“I should hope not,” said Miranda.

“Anyway, I called Oliver, and he’s going to round up Laurel and Captain Lance—they’re Sara’s sister and father,” said Barry. “Have you eaten? I can run out and get breakfast? Or Cisco can and I can stay?”

“Breakfast would be very welcome.” Miranda almost wanted to go herself, but she would be lost in a city of yesterday.

Barry looked her up and down. Smiling, he nodded to her. “I’ll ask my friend Iris to bring breakfast. I used to volunteer for Sunday School at church—it’s probably best if we tag team the kids—the more adults the better.”

Miranda let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you.”

Barry sent a text message to Iris, before he plopped himself on the floor next to Lenny, Michael and Jonas, asking if he could play with them. The boys enthusiastically showed him what they were building with the blocks they played with. She watched them play for a while, and the next thing she knew, Barry was nudging her awake. “Food’s here,” he said with a smile.

Jax was still in her arms and now struggling to break free. He nearly managed to jump off her lap when Barry grabbed him, and began making plane noises as he flew Jax through the air.

“Does he really light on fire and start to fly if he and Marty touch?” Miranda asked.

“Well, yeah, they can,” said Barry, as he walked out of the room, still flying Jax around in his arms. “They normally have to have a device to maintain a non-harmful bond and to be able to separate again. If Jax was wearing the device they’ll almost certainly bond if they touch, but it’s still possible if he wasn’t, and it will be very difficult to separate them if he wasn’t. It’s probably best if they don’t touch in the meantime.”

“Fascinating,” said Miranda, shaking her head.

They stopped just outside of what appeared to be a conference room, which had been filled to the brim with children. Cisco was inside trying to mitigate the chaos, along with three women. The youngest wore her brown wavy hair in a bun, pinned back with hair sticks. She looked slightly distraught at the number of children around her, especially the attention Sara and Kendra were paying her, but did her best to conceal it. An older white woman with blonde hair, who also had her hair clipped to her head, seemed to be doing a little better with Marty and Ray. Lastly, Lenny was conversing with a black woman in her forties as she peeled an orange for him, who Barry pointed out to Jax.

At the sight of her, Jax began to wriggle in Barry’s arms. He spat out his pacifier and began shouting, “Mama! Mama!”

She looked up at him, her face equal parts wonder and adoration. “Jeffy!” she said, a giant smile on her face. “Look at you, baby boy.” She stepped around the conference table and took Jax into her arms. He snuggled into her chest, as Jonas often had with Miranda when he was that age.

“This is too cute,” said Cisco ask he took a device from his pocket. He held it up, and Miranda realized he was taking pictures.

“He always was a sweet baby,” said Jax’s mother. She smiled at Miranda and held out her hand, “Dorcus Jackson, pleased to meet you.”

“Miranda Coburn, likewise,” said Miranda with a smile.

The other two women introduced themselves as Caitlin Snow and Clarissa Stein. Dr. Snow was merely a friend of the members of Rip’s crew, but Clarissa, Miranda was given to understand was actually Marty’s wife (when Marty had been an adult, of course).

“Thank you for bringing them back to us,” said Dorcus, pressing kisses to Jax’s head and rubbing his back. “It’d be hard enough to imagine Jefferson fighting his way through time with him as an adult. As a baby…” she shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“Truth be told, it was for a few selfish reasons as well,” said Miranda. “Even with Mick’s help—”

“And mine!” said Marty, his mouth full of bagel.

Clarissa tapped him on the head. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Sorry,” Marty mumbled, ducking his head.

“Even with Mick _and_ Marty’s help,” said Miranda again, “I was having trouble managing the nine of them. I’ve only ever really been around Jonas, and maybe a few of his friends for an afternoon.” She squinted and looked around the room. “Where is Mick, by the by?”

The adults took stock of the children present (as did the children, mimicking the adults), and found there was no Mick Rory present.

“For that matter—” All of them turned at the sound of a new voice. They saw, in the doorway, a woman wearing riding leathers and a deadly smile. Her hair was not one color, but brown at the root and softly changed colors until it became a bright, honeyed blonde at its tips. “Where’s my brother?”

“Lisa,” said Cisco, drawing out her name and forcing a smile on her face. “I wasn’t expecting you so quickly.”

“Where’s my brother, Cisco?” Lisa asked, her red painted lips growing wider with her smile.

Cisco looked to where Lenny had sat just moments ago, but the chair was empty—and the peeled orange nowhere to be found. “Umm…”

Miranda just shook her head. “He’s just wandered off. We’ve only been talking a few minutes, so he must be nearby.”

“I’ll look for him,” said Barry. He patted Miranda on the shoulder as he passed by and then looked to Lisa. “I suppose you’d like to come with.”

“I haven’t seen my brother in months,” said Lisa, flatly, as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes, I’m coming with.” She turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

Barry followed after, murmuring that he would just be a minute.

“Ms. Lisa is really pretty and I wanna be her when I grow up,” Sara declared, before she took another bite of her bagel.

All eyes in the room turned toward her, and Miranda thought that maybe the children weren’t the only problem they had at the moment.

 

Mick woke to someone tugging at his pant leg. He opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar little boy standing in front of him. Taking a quick look around at the concrete hallway, he realized he must have fallen asleep in the church basement again. “What’s up, little guy? Did you get lost?” Mass must have let out early—he wondered if Father Flannigan had died at the pulpit, because it seemed like the only way he wouldn’t have droned on and on through the reception of the Eucharist.

“Mick, I can’t find the bathroom,” said the little boy. “I gotta pee, and my hands are all sticky from my orange.”

Mick frowned—he didn’t know they had started giving the kids fruit in the children’s room. Then again, it had been over two months since his father had sent him to the children’s room as a punishment. Mostly because Mick snuck off to take a nap in the basement while Mass went on. Still, when a kid had to go...

Mick stood up and held out his hand for the little guy. He wasn’t joking about his hands being sticky, Mick thought, as the kid took his hand. As he looked around to get his bearings, he realized that this looked nothing like the church basement. Still, he thought he saw the familiar bathroom signs at the end of the hall. Mick began to walk and the little guy trotted on beside him.

Mick didn’t recognize the little boy, but there were plenty of new people moving to town since they opened the factory down the road, but the boy knew Mick... There were also too many kids for Mick to keep up with them all.

There _was_ a bathroom at the end of the hall. Mick held the door open for the little boy who wandered over to the urinals with no issue and undid his pants. Well, at least Mick wouldn’t have to give instructions on how to aim. Mick realized that he had to go, too, and so went to do his business.

The little guy finished first (smaller bladder, Mick thought), and went to go wash his hands. The sinks were clearly fashioned with adults in mind, however, and even jumping the little guy couldn’t reach the handles. “Mick!” he said, drawing out the “i” in Mick’s name. “Come and help.”

“Hold your horses,” Mick grumbled, as he tucked himself back into his pants. He looked at his pants for a second and realized that he couldn’t be at the church—his mom would never let him wear such ratty jeans to Mass.

“Mick, my germs are getting everywhere!”

“Calm down, kid,” said Mick, as he turned on the faucet and lifted the kid up by his waist.

“My name’s Lenny, not kid,” said Lenny.

“You’re wasting water, wash your hands,” said Mick.

Lenny wet his hands and pumped soap onto them, starting to hum the ABCs. He didn’t rinse off until he had finished humming and then demanded for Mick to put him down. Mick rolled his eyes, but let the kid down and went to wash his own hands—normally he wouldn’t have cared, but the last thing he wanted was for a kid to freak out on him.

Lenny found the paper towels on his own and waited for Mick to finished washing and drying his hands before he held out his hand to Mick. Mick took Lenny’s hand and led him out of the bathroom. Lenny surprised him by taking the lead back down the hall. When the hall ended, Lenny pulled him to the left toward a room with plenty of windows were there were a lot of kids eating breakfast and a few adults with them.

“Mick!” said one of the adults. She looked like she might have gotten to her feet, except she had a boy who looked like her (probably her son) in her lap. She brushed her dark hair out of her pretty face before she gestured to a free chair. “There you are. Sit down, have some breakfast.”

“Where am I?” Mick asked instead, as Lenny broke away from him and went back to his own chair. “And how do you know my name?”

The other adults looked a little confused, but the dark haired woman just sighed. “Oh dear, you fell asleep again didn’t you?

“Yeah, so?” Mick asked.

“Come and sit down, have some breakfast, and I’ll try to explain,” said the woman. “Or, we can have you watch the video message you left yourself.”

The woman smiled kindly at him—but it was the sort of kind smile that a social worker or a parole officer would have. It was the sort of smile Mick knew meant he was in trouble. So, without another word, Mick turned tail and ran.

 

Barry, with Lisa right behind him, were about to turn the corner back to the conference room just in time for Lenny to run right into them. Barry grabbed the little boy before he could make it any further. “Woah, woah, little guy. We were just looking for you.”

“Lemme go!” he demanded.

“Lenny, hold on a second, you can’t go running off by yourself,” said Barry, trying to contain Len’s flailing limbs.

“Lenny?” Lisa asked, looking down at her older (though currently much younger) brother.

“Mick’s leaving, I gotta get’im back!” said Lenny. He kicked hard at Barry’s knee, causing Barry to release him. Len wasted no time in running down the corridor, the opposite way Lisa and Barry had just come.

Lisa raced after the little boy, and Barry raced after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Lisa appeared in this, briefly, as promised, but it got a little long (for me) to give my pseudo scientific answer for why everyone was deaged as they were. So that's for next time. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, though, and drop me a comment to let me know what you thought!


	3. Chapter 3

Mick had no idea where the hell he was or where the hell he was going. He went right down one hallway, then left down the next, then right, and then ducked into a room with the lights off. Mick left the door open, as many of the doors in the hall were wide open, and hid behind the door and waited.

Mick was not good at waiting. He was actually sort of bad at it. But he could wait long enough to listen for the sound of feet running past and Lenny calling his name, “Mick!”

He was tempted to go to the distressed little boy, but after Lenny, he heard two more people running by calling out, “Lenny!” and “Jesus, how can he run so fast?”

Mick waited again until their footsteps faded and held his breath. He wanted to make sure they didn’t double back at all. He shoved his hands in his pocket to feel around for a lighter. Mick knew he couldn’t light up without them seeing it, but the presence of the lighter might calm him down enough to wait. He found it in his right pocket. In his left pocket, though, he found something else. The sides were smooth, like a lighter, but there was no sparkwheel or fork for a flame to catch.

He pulled the strange device out of his pocket—maybe it was a fancy zippo lighter that he would see every year at the state fair but like dad would never let him have. But as he tried to flick open the top, Mick found it wouldn’t flick. He pulled at the top, and found it came off quite easily.

What he found inside, Mick thought, looked a little like a computer part. They had a single computer at their school, in the library, given to them by a grant. Mick had played around on it enough to know how to use it, and had even stuck around for Jimmy Epstein, the geek, to take it apart and look inside to clean out the dust. That’s how he knew this looked like something that would attach to a computer.

Mick stood up and the lights in the room went on. He froze and looked around for the light switch, but didn’t see any. Mick swore and realized that meant he had to move on now, but just as he went to move he saw…a computer? But it didn’t look like the computer they had in the library. The screen was smaller for one thing, and so was the—oh what the hell had Jimmy called it? The mode? Modem? Modem—that was smaller too. But what really caught Mick’s eye is on the modem there was a slot that looked like it would fit the device in his hand just perfectly.

Mick knew he should be running, but instead he went and sat in the fancy chair behind the desk. He pressed the power button on the computer (at least that symbol hadn’t changed), and almost immediately rethought his decision. It took forever for computers to come on. Jimmy had waited nearly half an hour for the library computer to finish turning on. To Mick’s surprise though, this one took less than a minute.

When the desk top appeared, he slipped the device in the slot that was made for it. A box popped up on the desktop asking if he wanted to open. Mick guided the mouse over (thank God that the mouse looked the same as the one they had in the library) and double clicked. A larger box appeared, and there was a single file in it. The file’s name read, “WATCH THIS MICK.”

Mick double clicked it.

To his surprise, when the new box popped up it was his own face that came up on the screen. “You’re probably wondering what the hell is going on,” he said. “I figured that when I lost all of my memories the only person I would trust would be myself, so I made this video. Listen, I’m—you—we are…sick. Sorta. There’s a lot to explain, and honestly, it’s like something out of the _Twilight Zone_. When you get older you go with a group of people on a time traveling space ship, and there was this device you interacted with. It—”

“Mick?”

The voice hadn’t come from anyone on screen. Mick looked up and saw the hall way clear of anyone.

The Mick on screen rolled his eyes. “Lenny, you’re supposed to be having naptime.”

“I had a bad dream,” said Lenny. “Can I play with you for now?”

“I’m not playing, Lenny, I’m making a video.”

“Like on the news? Or with Sesame Street?”

Mick-on-camera smirked. “Yeah, like Sesame Street. Here, come sit down, I’ll be done in a minute, and then I can tell you a story.”

“Okay.” On screen, the same Lenny that Mick had helped go to the bathroom crawled into Mick’s lap and settled against his chest.

“Anyway, Mick,” said Mick-on-camera. “Basically, you were an adult before, and now you’re sixteen. You can trust Miranda Coburn. She’s not out to get you or take you back to juvie or nothin’ like that. Just listen to her, and do your best not to light anything on fire. Miranda and the others will find a way to fix this.” Mick-on-camera paused. “And be nice to the kids, but especially Lenny. You might not recognize him like this, but he’s the same Lenny you met last summer.”

With that, Mick-on-camera reached up and the video cut to black.

Last summer, Mick had been in juvie—and last he checked, Lenny Snart was a gangly mess of a fourteen-year-old, not an adorable seven-year-old. Maybe that was what Mick-on-camera had meant about Lenny being different…and maybe Lenny had been exposed, or whatever, to the same thing that had made Mick get younger and forget.

“I found you!”

Mick jumped and saw little Lenny racing toward him from the doorway. Without asking, Lenny climbed up into Mick’s lap and wrapped his arms around the back of Mick’s neck in a hug. “Mick, why’d you leave?” Lenny mumbled in his ear.

“I just…got scared, I guess, and ran away,” said Mick, rubbing Lenny’s back.

“Please don’t leave me, Mick,” said Lenny. “You’re my Mick.”

Mick didn’t know what to say to that. Even if little Lenny had no idea who he was, the kid sure seemed to like him. Not even Mick’s little brother liked him this much. “Okay, buddy. If I run away again, I’ll take you with me.”

Mick made sure to hold onto Lenny, and rub his back, as the little boy cried out his tears.

Two adults appeared in the door way frowning at them, but Mick just put a finger to his lips, doing his best impression of Ms. Horner (his school’s librarian). They waited while Mick rubbed Lenny’s back, and his sobs turned into hiccoughs. Thankfully, after a few minutes, he seemed to be fine, though he tiredly rested his head on Mick’s shoulder.

“Mick?” said Lenny.

“Yeah, Lenny?” Mick asked.

“Your shoulder’s all wet,” said Lenny.

“Gee, I wonder how that happened,” Mick muttered sarcastically. He wrapped his hands more tightly around Lenny’s back and stood. As they started moving, Lenny wrapped his legs around Mick’s waist and held on tight. “Okay,” he said to the adults. “We’re ready to go back now.”

“They’ve all moved into the cortex by now,” said the guy. He touched his ear like he was the secret service or something and said, “Yes, Cisco, we’ve got them and we’re on our way.”

“You had those comms the whole time and Cisco couldn’t pull up the security cameras or something?” asked the woman (a pretty woman too), crossing her arms in front of her chest. She followed after the man, though, as they walked to wherever this cortex was. The woman turned to look at him. “You two through with running away?”

“Yes ma’am,” said Mick.

She grinned at him, bright pink lips turning up in a dash. “How sweet! When you get older again, Micky, I’m not letting you live that down. You’re not normally sweet.”

Mick only shrugged at that. “I know you?”

“You will,” she said. She nodded to Lenny. “I’m that one’s little sister—well, when time travel’s not involved.”

Lenny actually looked up at this odd declaration and proceeded to study (or stare as Mick’s mother would say) at the woman. “You do look like my mama,” said Lenny after a moment. “But I don’t get to meet Elisabeth until next year—when I’ll be in third grade.”

She smiled, a little more kindly, at Lenny. “Well, consider this a treat, Lenny; you get to meet me a little early. But if you don’t mind, you should call me Lisa.”

“Kay,” said Lenny, before he buried his face in Mick’s shoulder.

The man whispered to Lisa, “I want all of the pictures of him all shy and sweet.”

“So long as you share, Flash,” she said to him.

The man sputtered a little as his eyes went wide. “Don’t call me that with…civilians around,” he grumbled when he managed to get a hold of himself.

“As if Bartholomew’s any better,” said Lisa.

“Barry, my name is Barry,” he said.

Barry led on for just a minute more until they came to a round room where all of the children were playing in the center of the room. The women and one man were crowded around a TV—the man was fiddling with something, trying to get an image to project.

“Alright there, Mick?” asked the same woman who had reminded him of a social worker.

Slowly, Mick nodded. “Are you Miranda?” he asked.

“Indeed I am,” she said, while she smiled softly. “I have to talk the other now about what’s happened to you and the children. You can listen if you’d like, or you can play with the others.”

He took a look at the screen, and realized they were looking at an x-ray (or something like it) of someone’s brain. “I flunked science—even in 4H. I think I’ll play with the kids.” That, Mick knew he could manage.

Miranda nodded. “If that’s what you want. Mrs. Jackson made you a bagel if you’re hungry. It’s just there on that desk.”

Mick looked to where she pointed it out and nodded. “Thank you,” he said, grabbing the bagel before he went to sit down with all of the younger kids.

 

Miranda watched Mick settle himself, thankful that both he and Leonard seemed calm now. The last thing she needed was errant children at a time like this. She cleared her throat as she turned back to the rest of the adults. “So then,” she said. “I must caution that some of this is surmise, given that I was not witness to what happened when the crew of the _Waverider_ was attacked. But I’ll do my best to explain what I do understand.

“The first thing I might disclose is that the Time Masters possess a device that is often used to slow time down to a near stop in localized proximities. It’s primarily used by bounty hunters to assist in bringing down time pirates, and other...” Miranda knew to choose her words carefully. “Anomalies, shall we say.”

“Anomalies like our family members?” ask Dorcas.

Miranda nodded, a frown forming on her face. “Unauthorized users of time travel are frequently considered as such,” she explained. “In any case, though this device is frequently used to stop time, it can also be engineered in cases to reverse or speed up time, again in localized proximity to the device. I believe this to be the device they encountered, based on Rip’s log and Dr. Stein’s notes, and also based on the after effects.”

“So the whole…de-aging thing,” said Cisco, his brow furrowed. “That’s just because their individual timelines were reversed?”

Miranda nodded.

“But then why are they all different ages?” asked Clarissa. “I would imagine they should all be around the same age—or at least similar ages within relation to their original ages.”

“That I’m not totally certain of, but if given to surmise,” said Miranda with a shrug. “Dr. Stein recorded that each of them were exposed to the device for different increments. He and Jefferson, while…combined sustained the longest treatment, Martin continuing to receive exposure after they were forced to separate. It would allow some explanation for why Martin lost so many more years than the others. Leonard and Mick were exposed multiple times, slightly longer than the others’ times. The other experienced nearly the same amount of exposure, with slight variation, thus explaining while they all nearly lost about twenty years.”

Caitlin hummed and hawed. “I suppose, the age loss explains the memory loss as well.”

“How so?” Lisa (at least, Miranda thought her name was Lisa) Snart asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Well, the whole crew had reached the point where their brains were fully developed,” said Caitlin. “Adults, simply put, are fully developed in terms of brain function such as cognition and memory. We know from most recently studies that full development occurs in a person’s twenties, a mean take being that full development takes place around twenty-five years of age.”

“So?” Lisa asked.

“So, as children, their brains are still in the throes of some massive development,” said Caitlin. “It might be overwhelming if they had all of the information they did as adults when their brains are still functioning as children.”

“They’re blocking it out,” said Cisco, from where he stood next to Lisa. Miranda noted that he had not stood exactly there a few moments before. He had definitely inched closer to Lisa during the course of their conversation.

“Simply put, yes,” said Caitlin. She raised a finger to Cisco and squinted a little. “Or at least, best guess without running several more studies. Did the time masters ever record any cases like this?”

“If they have, I didn’t find it,” said Miranda. “Who knows how long it’s been since Gideon has been able to update the records on the _Waverider_ , or if they would even be accessible from anywhere but the Vanishing Point.” At the blank looks she got, Miranda added, “That the Time Masters’ port of call.”

“I wonder if our Gideon would have any information on cases like this,” said Barry.

“I’m sorry, _your_ Gideon?” Miranda asked. “As in, you have an AI?”

“Yeah, she’s sort of left over from our own visit from an unauthorized time traveler," said Cisco, rolling his eyes at Barry.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt to check," said Miranda.

“Well, whatever about artificial intelligences,” said Lisa. “What’s gonna happen to them now? Do they have to do it all over again? Cause I gotta say, Lenny was a handful when he was forty-three—I have no idea how much of a handful he’s gonna be at seven.”

It was just then that Lenny shouted across the room, “MICHAEL I WAS USING THAT! YOU HAVE TO ASK FIRST, THOSE ARE THE RULES!”

“Maybe we should ask Gideon later, and focus on the kids now?” said Barry, rushing over the kids as Mick did absolutely nothing to hold Lenny back. “Lenny, Lenny, we don’t hit, even if someone takes something without asking.” Barry had to pause as he realized all of the children were staring at him. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“How’d you do that?” Michael asked with his eyes wide open.

“Do what?” Barry asked.

“You went woosh,” said Kendra.

“Oh,” said Barry. “I’m a superhero. But it’s a secret, so you can’t tell anyone.”

“If I promise not to tell, can I have a ride?” Ray asked.

“Me too! Me too!” the others began chanting.

“Uhhhh…” Barry looked on the children with wide eyed horror.

Miranda did not resist the urge to rub at her temples, trying to avoid the oncoming headache that she felt forming. She could see the other women with similar expressions. All of this was simultaneously compounded and interrupted when a man with a shaved head appeared in the door way of the cortex and Sara rose to her feet shouting, “Daddy!”

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hurrah! new chapter! we are slowly working our way to getting back on the _Waverider_ and heading to the neutral zone. I'm trying to commit to working on my open fics a little more. This one was easy to start writing a little more, though, because I pretending I'm word waring with RedHead who is also writing a deaged fic. (We aren't, but I'm good at pretending because I'm a writer!) Also: this is the chapter with my pseudo-science in it. Enjoy!

Sara’s father looked quite shocked as she ran toward him, but a father’s instinct allowed him to grab the running child and swing her into his arms in one fell swoop. Sara wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “I missed you, Daddy!” she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I…missed you too, baby,” he said, wrapping his arms around his daughter. His face said that he was unsure, but the way he held Sara, his arms wrapped so tightly around her, his muscles remembering the motion in a moment his forethought must have believed impossible.

Sara suddenly pulled back from her father’s embrace—not so much that she would fall, but enough that she could talk to him face to face. She put her hands on his cheeks and asked, “Daddy, why is Mr. Robert here with you and Mommy? And who’s the pretty blonde lady?”

Said woman beamed at being called pretty, but the other two who had come with Sara’s father looked confused.

The other woman turned to the man and said, “I really look that much like our mom?”

The man laughed slightly and said, “I really look that much like my dad?” causing the woman to laugh as well.

Before any of them had the chance to answer, Sara pressed on, “Mr. Robert, did you bring Ollie with you? I miss him too.”

“Not this time, Sara,” said “Mr. Robert” smiling brightly at Sara. “He had to stay home with his mom.”

“’Cause I’m sick with the time travels?” asked Sara.

“Mr. Robert” shook his head. “No,” he said. “Ollie just doesn’t like flying on the very fast plane we had to take to come and see you. I had to come with your daddy so they would let him on the plane.”

“Oh, okay,” said Sara. “Daddy can I get down now?”

“Sure, pumpkin,” he said, releasing her from his arms.

As he watched her return to playing with the other children, the pretty blonde woman (who Miranda had to admit was indeed very pretty), came over and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Donna Smoak. I’m,” she lowered her voice here, “Quentin’s girlfriend.”

“Dorcas Jackson,” said she brightly. “I take it Sara wouldn’t know about you right now, since it’s all hush hush.”

Donna nodded sweetly. “Quen and Dinah stayed married ‘till the girls were in their twenties, so I don’t want to give any rude shocks.”

The woman Sara had believed to be mother joined their circle with a smile. “One of the many reasons we love you, Donna.” The woman smiled brightly as Donna beamed at her. “I’m Laurel, by the way—I’m actually Sara’s older sister. And this is Oliver, he’s a family friend.”

The introductions went round again as they watched the children play—which mostly meant they watched Barry get his pant leg get tugged, as the children said, “Barry! Pony ride!”

“So,” Quentin asked after introductions were finished, and as the children began chanting, “Pony ride, pony ride!” “What exactly happened here?”

As Miranda began to repeat her assessment of what had happened to cause the children to become so, as Barry relented and said, “Okay, okay, one pony ride each!”

As Barry gave out pony rides, all while enduring the children's complaints that they weren't fast enough.

"So how do they...turn back?" Quentin asked at the end of the second explanation. "Can you reverse it or...or are they stuck like this until they grow back up?"

"I can certain replicate the device that was used to do this to them," said Miranda, with an easy nod. "But whatever we do to them, I'd really like to understand it better--to be certain that we know what effect it will have. As it stands, I'm not yet sure if the reversal was dangerous to them. I've run some preliminary tests and it doesn't appear to be. But I'd like to have a few more just in case."

"What sort of tests?" Quentin asked.

"Scans of the musculature and brain, mostly," said Miranda. "To make sure that everything is functioning as normal. I was able to do almost a full work up of Martin, and he appears to be fighting fit so to speak."

As she said this they looked up at the children, who were now climbing on a laughing Barry while Mick, Martin and Ray (who had already receive his ride) stood looking on with giant grins on their face. Oliver excused himself to assist with the pony rides, as Barry seemed to be loosing the fight. He hoisted Sara onto his back, as she all the while called him Mr. Robert.

"Until I can be certain that the initial reversal did not cause them any damage, it would simply be a matter of assembling a device--or perhaps investigating the _Waverider's_ armory to see if there's one aboard," said Miranda. "I'd want to sedate them after the change."

"Because of the mass expansion?" Caitlin asked.

"Well, and they didn't reduce in size, nor did they forget their adult minds until they went to sleep a second time," said Miranda with a sigh. "Sleep seems to be the trigger in the first transformation. If the reversal is anything like the initial one, it will be a tricky transformation."

"Their bodies would be adults before their minds would adjust again," Laurel said, interpreting Miranda's words.

"As I said, if it was anything like the initial transformation, that is what we can expect," said Miranda.

Clarissa tilted her head to the side. "Is there any reason not to expect it to be like the initial transformation?"

"None that I have," said Miranda. "But then again, I _don't_ know what will happen to them. As I said, Gideon has no records of this sort of occurrence--we are, essentially flying blind."

"So..." Donna paused as everyone's eyes moved to her, giving her their full attention. "Could they maybe just turn back on their own? I mean, without having to wait 20 years or more?"

Miranda opened her mouth, then closed it again. After a beat she said, “I hadn’t considered that. I suppose—it’s possible that they may age at accelerated rate.” Miranda sighed. “It’s possible they may not, there really are too many unknown variables at this point.”

“But we’ll keep working to reduce those unknown variables,” said Caitlin. She rested a hand on Miranda’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ve come face to face with a lot of strange circumstances over the past few years and we’ve always managed to come out on top.”

Miranda felt a wave of relief sweep through her as Caitlin smiled at her. She didn't have to worry about mucking this up--and perhaps more importantly she wasn't going to be alone anymore. So many of her days recently had just been her and Jonas, fighting for survival or hiding for their lives. And now Jonas was getting a pony-back ride from a young man with super speed while playing with other children, and Miranda had peers of her own to interact with. It was something that must have sent a rush of serotonin through her, because she relaxed more than she knew she had needed to.

In the middle of the cortex Barry collapsed, saying, "No more pony rides. This pony is down for the count."

Leonard, ever the contrarian, flopped belly first onto Barry who let out a gust of air. "Will you tell us a story then, Barry?" Leonard asked.

The other children, following Leonard's example, flopped down on Barry as well, while he asked, "Okay, what kind of story do we wanna hear?"

Cisco had pulled out his camera again and was now filming the interaction. When Caitlin gave him a disapproving look, he simply said, "Iris and Joe and Henry will want proof that this took place."

"We will need to pull them away to start exams though," said Miranda, even as she smiled as the children piled themselves on Barry as he began his story.

Dorcas held out her sleeping child and said, "You can start with Jefferson. I'm sure the other kids will fall asleep during story time. They've all got to be exhausted."

Something about the children being exhausted and falling asleep left a niggling feeling in Miranda's brain, but she couldn't say why. Instead, she merely nodded and took Jefferson from Dorcas. Only after she arranged the baby in her arms did she realize that she didn't know where she could work in STAR Labs. Caitlin, seeing her confusion, guided her along to her personal laboratory. Dorcas followed, but the rest staid behind, quietly talking amongst themselves.

The rest of the day passed in a gentle haze of time. Miranda and Caitlin examined all of the children in turn. True to Dorcas' prediction most of the children did fall asleep during Barry's story and staid asleep--even Martin and Mick, though they were sleeping off to the side, instead of draped all over Barry's body. They managed to get Kendra, Sara, Leonard and Ray in for exams without waking one, but when Oliver kindly offered to carry Martin to Caitlin's lab, the boy woke with a start. He tensed, blinking at them fiercely, and then relaxed when he remembered where he was. "I thought you were a dream, Dr. Coburn," he said.

"It does all seem very strange, doesn't it?" Miranda asked. "I need to give you another exam. Would you like Oliver to carry you or would you like to walk?"

"I'm fifteen," Martin grumbled. He stood up adjusting his glasses and his clothes. "Of course I'll walk."

Oliver jerked his head and nudged Martin's shoulder. "This way then."

Martin followed Oliver, still grumbling, and Miranda trailed after her. The niggling feeling had left her while examining the other children returned with a vengeance as she began to examine Martin. The lightness of the epiphany Miranda had while examine Martin's bone and brain scans overwrote the niggling feeling completely, though. "Caitlin," she said, as Oliver took Martin back to the cortex.

Caitlin looked up from where she was making some notes about Ray. "Hmm?" she asked.

Miranda put both of Martin's bone scans up on the same screen. "What does this look like to you?"

Caitlin squinted at the screen, as she looked over each of the scans. "The one on the left looks like the one you showed us of Martin, which makes the one on the left...Mick's?"

"That's just it," said Miranda, a giant grin taking over her face. "They're both Martin's."

"But..." Caitlin trailed off as she stood to get a closer look at the scans. "The person on the right is in the middle of a growth spurt. You can tell by the new bone growth and how much longer they are. You took these of Martin less than twenty-four hours ago."

"I think Donna was right," said Miranda with a smile. "They're aging aggressively. When we first arrived here, Martin said he was thirteen--but he came in for his exam he said he was fifteen. His scans back that up."

Caitlin studied the scans with her lips pressed together in a tight line. "So are they always aging? Or is there a trigger?"

"Well," said Miranda, tapping the scans. "I did take these after Martin woke up from a nap. And sleep was the initial trigger for the regression--and for the second trigger. I think we should take scans of everyone at the beginning and end of the day so we can measure how much they grow over the day and then after a full night's sleep."

"Well, it'll be interesting to wrangle them all." Caitlin gave a wry grin. "But I agree, that's probably the best course of action. We should probably give everyone an update, just to let them know what's going on."

As if he had known they were talking about, Cisco popped his head into the room saying, "Lunch time!"

The group from Star City was in higher spirits now, seeing that Ray and especially Sara were well. The children, after a meal and midmorning nap, were full of energy, such that they had to relocate to an onsite gymnasium. Miranda watched with awe and joy as Jonas took to playing with the other children. She had to blink furiously to fight back the tears that threatened to take her over at the sight of them.

"Honey are you okay?"

Miranda turned to find Donna at her side and a concerned hand on her shoulder. Miranda opened her mouth to say she was fine, but hall that came out was a choked sob. Miranda tried to close her mouth, but it was too late, tears ran down her face in droves and she was powerless to stop them.

"Awww, sweetie," said Donna as she pulled Miranda close.

How long had it been since someone had held her? Perhaps the last time Rip was able to visit before the soldiers came. Perhaps even longer than that. They had taken their time for granted, as all people do when they don't realize that they don't have much time together left. But between Vandal Savage's forces marching on Britain and being strong for Jonas, Miranda hadn't let herself crack, hadn't had anyone to care for her in a long, long time. But Donna didn't ask what she needed, just held her, and rubbed her back, and hummed a little song in her ear. It was almost like being the child for once, instead of the mother, something that Miranda had never known--not even at the Orphanage were Mrs. Xavier did her best with all of them but never had this sort of time for personal attention.

As her vision began to clear, she could see over Donna's shoulder that some of the other adults, Oliver, Laurel, Barry and Cisco, were playing with the children now, leading them in a sort of game. Laurel was standing right next to Jonas, encouraging him in the game. They were distracting him, and the other children, she realized, so they wouldn't notice that she was crying. That was kind of them.

The thought of their kindness made her want to break down into even more tears, but she pulled them back before they could release. When Miranda had managed to calm down a little further, she pulled away from Donna's embrace only mildly sniffling. "Thank you," she managed. "Thank you for that."

"It's alright, sweetie," said Donna, brushing Miranda's bangs out of her eyes. "We all need a good cry now and then. I can't imagine being separated from your husband, only to reunited and find him as an eight-year-old."

"There's a lot that's happened while Rip's been away," said Miranda. "It's been trying to say the least."

"I'll bet," said Donna. She smiled brightly at Miranda. "But you said that they're aging back. So, what, it'll be a few weeks and he'll be the same man who left you." Donna winked. "Maybe he'll even be a little improved."

Miranda couldn't help but laugh at Donna's flirty suggestion. "Maybe," she agreed.

She wiped again at her wet face with her hand when Lisa and Caitlin joined their little group holding small bags in hand.

"Water works all done?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, thank you," said Miranda.

"We thought we might help do your makeup then," said Caitlin. "If you want."

The Time Masters hadn't allowed such things, and twenty-second century London on the brink of war hadn't really seemed like the right time to learn. "I've never had my makeup done," she confessed.

"Well, now we gotta," said Lisa. She gestured to a bench on the court sidelines. "Take a seat, lady."

Jonas wandered over in middle of her having her face done, his face scrunched like when he was seeing something unbelievable for the first time. "What're you doing?" he asked.

"Just having some fun of our own," said Lisa. She reached out and tapped his nose with the finger that she had been applying eye shadow with, leaving a spot there.

Jonas batted at it with his sleeve. "It doesn't look very fun," he remarked. "I think I'll go back to playing with my mates." Jonas turned to run away and then paused turning back to Miranda. "Is that alright, Mum."

"Yes, darling," she said. "Perfectly alright."

"Most kids wouldn't ask permission at his age," Lisa remarked.

"Most kids don't grow up in a war zone," Miranda remarked before she could think about what she was saying.

Caitlin's and Donna's mouths both fell open a little bit, but Lisa just shrugged. "Guess not," she said. "What do you think, Dr. Snow, to contour or not to contour?"

Caitlin shook herself out of her revery to say, "Let's not shock her too much on her first time."

"Contouring?" Miranda asked.

"We'll show you later," said Lisa as she held up a little mirror. "Here you go, doll, it's all you."

Miranda raised an eyebrow at herself in Lisa's compact. "What on earth have you done?" she asked with a grin. Her freckles had disappeared completely under Lisa's practiced hands and her whole face was gently coated in powders. "It's lovely, thank you."

"HEADS UP!" Mick called from the court.

Miranda looked up just in time to see a ball flying their way. She barely had time to register the ball coming toward them, while Lisa reached out and grabbed it from thin air.

"Watch where you're throwing that, Mick!" Lisa said as she tossed it towards the basket ball hoop on the opposite end of the court. The ball went through the hoop, the net swishing as the ball fell through.

"Impressive," said Miranda as she watched all of the children run after the basket ball.

Lisa winked at her. "Can't let the boys have all the fun."

"You alright now darling?" Dorcas asked as she meandered over with Jax on her hip. Jax was watching intently as they passed the ball around. He kept pointing at the ball like he wanted it.

"Just fine," said Miranda. "Just needed a minute to let go."

Jax pulled the pacifier from his mouth and said, "Ball! Ball, Mama!'

"Yes, Jefferson," she said, rolling his eyes.

He looked up at Dorcas and pointed intently at the other kids. "Ball, Mama. I wanna ball."

"Jeffy, you can't play with the big kids," said Dorcas.

"Ball, Mama," he repeated. Jax placed a hand over Dorcas's heart. "Ball please."

Dorcas sighed and shook her head. Jax nodded in response. "Yes," he said. "Ball please."

Dorcas raised her voice and said, "Will one of you boys come over here, please?"

Barry was at their side at an instant. "What's up?"

"Jefferson would like to play with you, please," said Dorcas.

"Please, ball," Jax echoed.

Barry held out his arms and Jax eagerly climbed into Barry's arms chanting, "ball, ball, ball."

Barry, despite being a fully grown man, began chanting along with him. Mick, who had the ball, came straight to them and held it out to Jax.

"Mick!" said Leonard, drawing out the i in Mick's name. "We wanna play."

"We're gonna let Jefferson play too, Lenny," said Mick rolling his eyes at Leonard. "You've gotta be nice to the little kids."

Leonard puffed up his cheeks as he pouted. "But Mick!"

"No buts, Lenny," said Mick.

"This is absolutely hilarious," said Lisa.

"What is?" Miranda asked as they watched while Barry held Jax up to put the ball through the basket. Jax pushed the ball and it went through the hoop on his first try.

Sara, who had been watching patiently, swooped underneath them and snatched the ball after it had had a chance to bounce much on the floor. She passed it to Kendra, who began dribbling back to the other side of the court. Barry pulled Jax up onto his shoulders, the little boy weaving his fingers through Barry's hair to hold on as Barry jogged (at a normal pace) to follow the pack of children.

"Just Lenny and Mick," said Lisa after a moment of observation. "They seem to connect well, even deaged and even with the age gap. Like they were made for each other almost."

"And what's that mean?" Dorcas asked.

Lisa tilted her head. "Lenny'd probably kill me if I say. But he and Mick are..." she paused. "Were? Well, whatever, they're together."

"I imagine that's going to be a little rough on Mick," said Miranda with a frown. "Leonard's nine years younger than him at this point."

"Oh you don't need to worry about that," said Lisa waving her off. "Micky's a little troubled, but a standup guy in the end. He'll keep Lenny on the straight and narrow 'till they can both consent with one another."

It wasn't that Miranda didn't trust Lisa, but by Mick's own admission, he was a troubled teen. She doubted that he would be able to keep it in his pants if he didn't really want to. Still, she barely knew the young man and decided, ultimately, to take Lisa at her word.

As Miranda looked up from her reflections, she saw something wondrous happen--well, wondrous and terrifying at the same time. Jax, from atop Barry's shoulders, reached out to catch the basketball as it flew through the air, and he managed. Unfortunately, the force knocked him off of Barry's shoulders, even with Barry holding on. The only person behind Barry at the time was Martin, and before anyone could react or realize what had happened, a fifteen-year-old Martin Stein plucked a two-year-old Jefferson Jackson from the air, and then there was a bright flash throughout the gymnasium.

It turned out that yes, Jefferson still possessed the ability to fly as well as remain on fire without being hurt.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a Pizza Party until Vandal Savage shows up and ruins _everything_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED THIS!! It feels like it has taken me forever to write this--it's also 2000 words longer than the other chapters. Unedited like the others though, so that's consistent. Enjoy!

The adults, or older adults as they were, stood frozen in place at the site of a flying two-year-old. Barry and Oliver, however, leapt into action trying to get to Jefferson. Cisco, for whatever reason, actually raced out of the gymnasium like there was fire on his heels. The children all marveled, oooing and ahhhhing at the site of Jefferson on fire. "Can I light on fire?" Ray asked, tugging Barry's pant leg.

"No, Ray, you can't light on fire," said Barry.

"But it doesn't hurt Jefferson, so it won't hurt me," said Ray.

"It's a special kind of fire, Ray," said Oliver, as he tugged on the boy to get him out of the way.

Jefferson seemed to think they were playing a game, as Barry had to jump up to catch him. But as Barry jumped, Jefferson would hover just so slightly out of the way. Watching this whole ordeal left Miranda a little slack jawed.

Dorcas, however, began to laugh hysterically after a moment of observation. When she managed to speak, all she could say was, "White boys can't jump," which caused all of the other adults, sans Miranda, to burst out laughing as well. Miranda chalked it up to an era joke that she had missed with her love of early science fiction. Dorcas, when she could pause her laughter, walked out onto the gymnasium floor. "Jefferson Jackson, you turn those flames off and come down here right now."

Jefferson, who was hovering just out of Barry's reach, cooed with he saw his mother and flew toward her arms. He turned the flames off when he was just an inch or so above them, and plopped right into her arms. "Hi, Mama," he said.

"Are you gonna let Martin out, Jefferson?" Dorcas asked, as he cuddled into his arms.

Jefferson scrunched up his nose and asked, "How?"

With perfect narrative timing, Cisco raced back into the room holding out a squat, cylindrical item. "I got it! Also: Lisa, hide, police."

Lisa, impressively, for she was wearing four inch heels, jogged off to the other exit and left the gymnasium. Cisco, meanwhile, breath belabored, finished his race over to Jefferson and Dorcas, where he held out the cylinder. Dorcas positioned Jefferson so he faced Cisco, and Cisco pressed it into the child's chest, whereupon it grew arms and those attached to Jefferson as well. "And then we push this button here..." said Cisco.

In the next moment, Jefferson seemed to blur, and then Martin stood next to him, looking a little glassy eyed, but no worse for wear. "Marty!" said Jefferson, holding out his arms to Martin.

"I think not." Dorcas pulled him back from Martin and said to Cisco. "Show me how to do that--I imagine these boys are gonna get into a lot of trouble."

Crisis averted, Miranda's attention focused on the doorway Cisco had raced through moments before, where there now stood two men. One, who was African-American, quite tall and handsome, wearing a suit with his badge around his neck, merely stood in the doorway with his hand over his eyes as if this sort of thing were a regular occurrence, and he couldn't quite believe it was happening again. The other, though, who was not quite as darkly complexed, but also wore a suit and badge, his hair nicely slicked back and beard groomed neatly, stood sort of wide eyed at the whole scene.

"Allen, what the--" he cut himself off eyes flicking down to the level of the children, before he brought them back up to stare at Barry, "earth is going on here?"

Miranda heard Mick snort, and she saw the boy laughing to himself, saying, "What the earth," in a condescending voice.

Barry walked to this man, he did not run, even at a normal speed. Miranda realized he must not be in on all of the secrets. "It's a little difficult to explain, Captain."

"I would think so," said the Captain. "I thought you took the day off to help with an emergency, which I assumed meant Flash business or STAR Labs was about to melt down again. I find you here playing with children--one of whom just split into two children."

"And that's why it's kind of hard to explain," said Barry, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Because I don't know how much you want to know, Captain, and how much you want to plausibly deny."

This seemed to process across the Captain's face, what exactly Barry was telling him. He seemed to understand, that there was more at play here, than simply his subordinate playing hooky, or participating in child care.

His contemplations were interrupted, however, when Leonard came over and tugged Barry's pant leg. Miranda stood and began to shuffle over to them in Lisa's place. When Barry knelt down Leonard said something in his ear that Miranda couldn't quite catch. Barry, looking a little confused, nodded. Then Leonard shook his head and said, "I don't like the police."

The color ran off of Barry's face just a little bit, and he scooped Leonard up into his arms. "Oh, I know you don't, Lenny. But it's okay, no one here will hurt you. I'll make sure of it."

The Captain scrubbed the heel of his palm over his eyes and said, "I'm going to regret asking this, but is that Leonard Snart?"

"Yes," said Barry with an easy shrug.

"What happened here, Bear?" asked the African-American man.

"Um, well, Joe," said Barry as he rubbed Leonard's back, while the boy cuddled into him, "the long and short of it is, that there were certain individuals, who agreed to go on a certain trip that I told you about, who are now children, when they weren't before."

"Did this trip involve time travel?" the Captain asked.

"Yeesss," said Barry.

The Captain sighed. "Barry, I know you're the Flash. I've known for a while now."

Barry tensed and relaxed in seconds. "And you're okay with that?"

"I'll deny it if anyone asks, and I still can't believe how often you're late when you have superpowers that mean you can go anywhere at the speed of light." Here the Captain paused to frown at him, and Barry ducked his head accordingly. "But yes, I'm 'okay' with it. Now tell me what happened," the Captain demanded.

Miranda let Barry recount the story as he knew it--he had the right of it, straight through and so she didn't feel the need to but in at all to make any corrections. The Captain, or David Singh as Miranda learned he was called, presented a series of contorting faces throughout the story, as if he couldn't quite believe what was happening, but must when given the evidence which had been presented to him. "Alright," he saidat last, waving off the lingering bits of Barry's explanation. "I think that's enough, I get it."

"Barry can we go play now?" Leonard mumbled in Barry's ear.

"Why don't I take you to go play, Leonard?" Miranda offered, holding her hands out to him.

Leonard shook his head. "I wanna play with Barry. I like him second best."

"Only second best?" Barry asked with mock indignation.

"Yeah," said Leonard, pulling back in Barry's arms to face him. "I like Mick the best. But you're okay too."

Barry only laughed and smiled at him. "Okay, Lenny, thank you. I think you're pretty great too. Tell you what, since talking is boring, why don't you go play with Mick and the others, and I'll be there in a minute."

"M'kay," said Leonard sliding down from Barry's arms and running toward Mick.

Joe, the other officer with Captain Singh, shook his head softly as he watched Leonard run off to tackle Mick. "I'd forgotten how he was at that age. Only met him once or twice, but he seemed like a nice kid. It was a shame when he turned out like he did."

Miranda furrowed her brows at this. "A hero?" she asked.

Captain Singh and Joe's eyes slid toward her both narrowing a bit as they too became confused. "Leonard Snart is one of the most notorious thieves in the country," said Captain Singh. "He's suspected of hundreds of thefts and has been caught fewer times than I can count on one hand--and only once after he turned twenty, thanks to the Flash here. He's also been known to use capital force when he felt it necessary. He didn't...he doesn't grow up to be a particularly good man."

Miranda turned to look at the little boy who, after a moment of playing with Mick was now being pulled into a game of jump rope with Jonas and the girls. He had been nothing but a sweet, biddable boy the entire time she had known him, grant it no more than a day. But surely, something would show that he was going to grow up to become a killer, wouldn't it? Then again, as a time master she would have been expected to kill, or let die, anyone who might turn the timeline away from how it should have been. Had it shown in her? Had it shown in Rip when they were children? Michael stood off to the side from where Leonard was now jumping rope, his eyes following the rope before he jumped in, and began skipping at the same time as Leonard. The two boys held hands and laughed together while the girls chanted a rhyme.

"It seems difficult to believe," she said after a few moments. Only to herself did she say that it didn't matter--at least not right now. It wouldn't change how she treated this child who needed her. Her eyes slid over to Mick who was lounging on the floor where Leonard had knocked him over. Laurel had joined him, and the two were talking as they watched the younger children skip rope. Miranda vowed to herself that it wouldn't change how she treated Mick, either, arson or no arson.

"It certainly does," said Joe, watching them play together. "This is making me all nostalgic for when you and Iris were little, Bear. I think that's our que to head back to the station."

"I think you're right," said Captain Singh. "Allen, you're on call today, and we'll need you to answer. Mendes is out with the flu. I expect you in tomorrow, though, children or no children."

"Yes sir," said Barry easily, a smile lighting up his face.

Captain Singh rolled his eyes at Barry's easy expression, but fondly, as if he'd caught his younger brother doing something he shouldn't, but something that was not technically against the rules. He and Joe left, talking quietly to themselves as they went.

 

Mick watched the two pigs leave and felt himself relax a little.

"You okay?" Miss Lance, call-me-Laurel, asked, nudging his foot with her own.

"I don't like cops," said Mick simply, staring at the negative space where they had once stood. Ms. Shirley, the art teacher at his high school, talked a lot about negative space, and about how seeing things that weren't there could make all the difference when you were creating art. Mick thought that was stupid, but he liked the term negative space. It reminded him of all the things that weren't there.

Miss Lance simply smiled at him. "I'll bet," she said. "They aren't very good listeners, are they?"

Mick shook his head. That was probably it--the pigs never listened to what you say. They already thought they knew the story, and it didn't matter what you said, they never changed their minds. "You're pretty smart, Miss Lance," he said.

Miss Lance grinned at him. "Thanks, Mick."

"Well, I think you're wrong," said Mr. Robert, whose name was actually Oliver, as he sat down to join them. He grinned as he added, "Miss Lance is very smart. She's the smartest person I know."

Miss Lance rolled her eyes and punched Mr. Robert in the arm. "You're a dork."

"And we're back to second grade taunts," said Mr. Robert his grin getting wider. "Having kids changed you, Laurel."

"Shut up, Ollie," said Miss Lance.

The sound of hinges creaking made Mick turn and he saw Lisa reenter the gymnasium, peaking in to take a look around. He supposed he ought to also call her Miss Snart, but she was Lenny's little sister, and trying to wrap his head around that made his head hurt. "Oh good," she said after a quick look. "They're gone. So what's the word on lunch? I'm starved."

"Well, we have a wealth of small children," said Mr. Robert-Oliver, drawing Mick's eyes back to them. "I'm voting P-I-Z-Z-A."

This pronouncement caused the kids to stop skipping rope. "Mr. Robert," said Sara, "we can all spell, you know."

Kendra nodded emphatically. "I won the spelling bee in my class." Kendra paused and used her spelling prowess to consider what Oliver had said. "Can we get a sausage pizza?" she asked. "We only ever get pepperoni and cheese when we have pizza parties at school."

"And ham too!" said Sara.

"But no pineapples!" Lenny added.

"What's a pineapple? Jonas asked.

Lenny turned and very seriously took Jonas' face in his hands. "It's something that doesn't belong on pizza."

Jonas looked taken aback by this and tried to get away. "Kay," he said, stepping back from Lenny.

Mr. Robert/Oliver rolled to one side and pulled a wallet out of his back pocket and tossed it to Cisco. "Know a local pizza place?"

"Pshh." Cisco pouted. "Oliver, I am offended. I know all of the local pizza places. Thanks for the dough, though, it would have been a little hard to explain why we have a pizza budget." He pulled out a phone from his pocket (the future was wild, Mick thought, because not only did the phones fit in your pocket, you could play games and access every book in the world on them and all the movies ever and practically everything which had ever existed. It was pretty awesome) and began chatting at a pizza delivery guy.

"You sure you don't want to talk about anything?" Miss Lance asked him.

Mick startled a little as he turned back to her--he thought for sure she would have dropped it by now. "I'm fine," said Mick. He waved his hand around in a vague gesture his mom made that his dad hated. "I'm just getting used to all of this."

"It's a lot to adjust too," she said with a sympathetic smile. "Hell, when I see what Cisco and Caitlin can do I feel a little left behind. I can't imagine what I would do if I go transported from the nineties into all of this."

Before Mick could really think about it, he had already cried out, "Why are you all so nice?" and gotten to his feet.

Lenny noticed and was at his side in an instant. "Are we running away, Mick?" he asked as he took Mick's hand in his own. Mick already had his father's hands and they dwarfed Lenny's small hands inside his grip.

"Yeah," he said, as he walked out the back doors he had seen Lisa go through a little bit ago.

"Are we gonna come back for pizza?" Lenny asked, as he began to swing their hands together.

"...Yeah," said Mick.

Lenny, happy that they were still getting pizza, began to gab his ear off. In a way, little Lenny reminded Mick a lot of his younger brother, Nathan, who never had a mean thing to say and never shut up. But Nathan wasn't so enamored with Mick--he tended to skew toward their older brother, Johnny. Johnny who was going to college, even if it was a year late, because he could pin a man to the ground in a second flat, and keep them there for five more. Johnny liked to wrestle with Mick, even when Mick didn't want to. Said, that Mick would never have a chance at something like college, because not only was he stupid, he was untalented too. People like Johnny, Mick's own brother, Mick was used to. Or Jimmy Epstein, the computer geek, and Miss Peach, the librarian, who tolerated Mick, so long as he didn't do anything that was considered a monumental screw up. Or his mother who sighed after him and said, "I don't know what we're going to do with you, Michael Rory," in her wistful Irish accent.

Mick was used to the sort of people who thought the worst of him or thought nothing of him. But here was a group of people who actually seemed to like him and was always asking him if he was alright, or if he needed anything, and if they could help him. The only people Mick knew that wanted to help were people like social services, who's sort of help got your life turned upside down. After all, the last time social services had sniffed around, Mick had actually gotten caught lighting something on fire, and had actually gone to juvenile hall. Mick's own father had made that call and told the judge to bring the swiftest, harshest punishment allowed. The judge had taken a look at Donal Rory and given Mick a month to think on his sins.

Lenny tugged at Mick's hand. "Mick, I'm hungry, can we go back for the pizza now?"

"It's probably not here yet, Lenny," said Mick.

"It's been twenty minutes," said Lenny.

Mick blinked at him. "Has it really?"

Lenny nodded and pointed to a clock on the wall. "It was 12:05 when we left and it's 12:25 now. So the pizza might be here, but they definitely will be here in ten minutes, because else they gotta give it to us free and people hate giving free things. And since it took us twenty minutes to get here, it's probably gonna take twenty minutes to get back, and I don't want Sara to eat all of the ham pizza."

Mick frowned as he looked Lenny in the eye and worked through his well-reasoned logic. After a moment, when he had it he nodded, and said, "Sure Lenny, that sounds like a plan." Then Mick turned and realized that he hadn't exactly been keeping track of which way they had come. Lenny tugged on his hand though and led him through the hallways until they were back at the gymnasium in no time at all.

Of course, that was right when someone snuck up behind them and went, "Boo!"

Mick jumped and Lenny shrieked something awful. They both turned, and when they did, Lenny kicked the man in the shin, before Mick punched him in the gut. Once the punch had been delivered, Mick saw that it was Mr. Robert-Oliver, who grunted and grimaced at their attack.

"Mr. Roooobeerrt," said Lenny with a point. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking remarkably adorable. "You can't sneak up on people like that!"

Mick, though he was upset about nearly being jumped, realized that they hadn't heard Robert-Oliver approach the whole time. He blinked in awe when he realized, "You're a ninja!"

"Not quite," he said, with something of a smile. "You've got a nice punch, though, Mick."

"Can you teach me to be a ninja?" Mick asked.

"It involves a lot of pushups," said Mr. Robert-Oliver with a smile. "You think you can handle it?"

Mick nodded eagerly.

"What's a ninja?" Lenny asked.

Mick reached down and lifted the little boy onto his shoulder. "Only the best thing ever. You'll see Lenny."

Lenny did not look suitably impressed, but instead a little suspicious. After a beat he asked, "Pizza?"

"Just got here," said Oliver, as he pushed open one of the gymnasium doors. "Come on, let's go."

Lenny settled on his shoulder, even though he was clearly excited about the pizza and let Mick carry him over to where they had a table of food set up. Lenny was chanting under his breath, "Ham, ham, ham..." like some kinda possession.

Mick finally got up the gumption to ask, "Why do you like ham so much Lenny?"

"Ma says we're not supposed to have it, ‘cause it comes from a pig. It's against the Torah," said Lenny. "Daddy used to share a ham slice with me before..." and here Lenny paused and bit his lip for a minute. "Before. But he doesn't now. And Ma still won’t let me have it, so I don't get it anymore."

"You're a Jew, Lenny?" Martin asked. He didn't seem angry about it, like the Aryan bastards at juvie did. Instead, he had his head tilted to one side as he chewed on a plain cheese piece of pizza.

Lenny nodded emphatically, speaking some words rapidly in a foreign tongue that Mick didn't understand. It didn't sound like Irish or German, which were the two foreign tongues he did sort of understand. After only the first word, Marty and Mrs. Donna joined in with whatever Lenny was saying, and completed it together. It occured to Mick that it must be a prayer, because with the three of them, it sounded like what happened when, during Mass, the Priest said, "Peace be with you."

Mrs. Donna came and lifted Lenny down from Mick's shoulders which Lenny allowed as he let out a little, "Whee!"

"Your mother's right though," said Marty, titling up his nose just a little. "You shouldn't eat ham—it's not kosher."

"Not everyone keeps kosher, young man," said Mrs. Donna, giving a very pointed look. "And Lenny can have a slice of ham if he wants." With that she fixed him a plate with a slice of ham and a slice of cheese at Lenny's request, and then turned to Mick. "And what about you, Mick?"

"Um," said Mick, feeling himself go flush under the attention of a beautiful, kind woman. "Just, whatever's fine? I don't really eat pizza much." They couldn't afford it, and Ma's cooking filled them up better, besides.

Mrs. Donna smiled more brightly at him. "It's alright," she said. "You can have whatever you want, come and take a look and you can see what we have."

They had had Pizza at school once, from the local place that let their bread get over proved so it tasted hard by the time it had gotten to the school. This pizza looked different, though. The bread was soft to Mick's inquisitive poke, and the cheese had gone just the right side of brown. There was one pizza that was covered with mushrooms, and slices of sausage, and something that must have been olives. Mick pulled a piece from the box and tried it. The sauced and the toppings and the cheese all worked together and it tasted...well, it tasted really good.

“Mick’s got good taste,” said Barry. He was holding a slice of the same pizza.

Oliver walked by and stole Barry’s slice taking a bite out of it before returning it to Barry’s hand. “No, you’ve got weird taste.”

“Ollie, don’t be a diii…nosaur,” said Barry, attempting to keep a straight face as he swerved off from his swear word.

Oliver stopped and looked Barry dead in the eye. "Dinosaur."

"Yes, like one of the bad dinosaurs from Jurassic Park," said Barry, staring him down.

"Dinosaurs are just animals," said Kendra, as she swallowed a large lump of pizza. "And animals aren't good or evil. So you should leave them alone and not bring them back from the dead." She then paused and looked down. "I wouldn't like to be brought back from the dead."

"when you die you get to go to heaven and play with horses," said Sara knowledgeably.

Kendra nodded. "Which is why I'd be mad. I want to play with horses forever."

Barry's and Oliver's faces morphed into something that looked like wide eyed horror. "I'm never having children," Oliver muttered.

"More children," said Barry.

"More children," said Oliver.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Don't be dramatic, boys." Mrs. Donna nudged Mick with a plate, filled with two other slices of pizza, one of the sausage and mushrooms, another slice of pepperoni. "Eat up, sweetie," she said, kindly. "And Oliver, you owe me at least one grandchild, Felicity permitting."

Oliver smiled at her. "Okay, okay."

Mick took a seat near Marty, who seemed like less of a giant dweeb than he had a couple of hours ago (he wondered if merging with a baby and getting to light on fire did that to you), and naturally Lenny came to in his lap as they ate. Jefferson attempted to crawl away from his mother to do the same from Marty, but Ray scooped him up before he could get far. When Jefferson crawled away from Ray, Kendra got him. It almost became like a game--who could get Jefferson before he got to Marty. Jefferson seemed to be having as much fun as they were. After eating though, he soon started to yawn and his eyes began to droop. Mick nudged Lenny to one side as he scooped Jefferson up and cradled him in one arm.

"Do you think my sister, Elisabeth, will be as nice of a baby as Jefferson?" Lenny asked, head cocked to one side.

"Babies are all different," said Mick. "Some are nice, like Jax, and some are mean, like my sister Siobhan. She'd bite you every chance she got as a baby."

"Do you think Elisabeth will bite me?" Lenny asked, as he reached out to pat Jefferson on the head, Lenny.

"She won't have teeth at first," said Mick, trying not to roll his eyes. Lenny was only a kid after all, so he didn't know so much. "And Siobhan always liked attention, which is why she'd bite people so much. But my other little sister, Colleen, she was nice and didn't bite anybody."

"You've got two sisters?" Ray asked, scooting a little closer.

"And four brothers," said Mick. "One younger, three older."

Ray sighed. "I haven't got any brothers or sisters." He pouted a little at this thought, as if having to share everything and never having a space of your own were a good thing.

"I've got an older sister named Laurel," said Sara. She, too, had started to scoot close, as if watching Mick rock the baby were the same as watching a baseball game. "And she's really nice. We still get to play together a lot even though she's in the third grade with Ollie and Tommy."

"I wish I had a sister," said Kendra.

"You can be sisters with me and Laurel," said Sara. "And we'll help Lenny play with Elisabeth, and Lenny and Ray and Michael and Jonas can be brothers."

Ray cocked his head to one side. "Can you do that?"

"Sure!" Sara nodded excitedly at Ray. "I read about it in a book, where all of these kids go to a magic school together and they all call each other brother and sister and then they are."

Sara made it sound delightfully simple, choosing your own family. Mick knew he was stuck with his, at the very least until he turned eighteen, and maybe even after that. Joseph, who was twenty four now and had his own farm, had said that Mick could come and live and work with him if he wanted, when he was done in school. Mick wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He and Lenny--

The thought caught him off guard as he looked down at the little boy occupying half of his lap. In the video, Mick had told himself that this young Lenny was the same Lenny he had met in juvie a couple of months ago. The same Lenny he had saved from getting stabbed in the yard, even though it had earned Mick two days of solitary confinement. Lenny, the older one, had said they were partners after that. And the night before Mick had left juvie, Lenny had kissed him so sweetly, Mick still pined to go back and live that kiss again. He had known men could fuck together before--he had known that even before the judge sentenced him, as there were a few boys who weren't allowed to date while working on the farms, or there sometimes weren't, as they put it, enough women to go around. But Mick had never before known you could be tender with a man--that you could kiss and pine for them, as you did a woman--that if given a choice between Lenny and a girl, he would pick Lenny, because Lenny made him ache.

Mick forced himself to stop thinking about it. He had two children in his lap and it didn't matter that one day, one of them was going to grow up and kiss Mick. It'd still be very wrong if he--

There was a loud BOOM that echoed throughout the gymnasium. The kids all covered their ears with their hands except for Jefferson, whose eyes popped open and he began to cry.

The adults were on them in a single moment, Mrs. Jackson taking Jefferson from him as Mick swooped Lenny into his arms. Mick thought he heard the word attack before another boom shook the grounds, and then they were all running, running, running, with children in their arms. It was Barry and Oliver and Cisco who led them through the maze like hallways of the laboratories. Somewhere, Oliver had gotten a bow and a quiver of arrows. He had the bow raised, arrow nocked, as two men appeared in the hallway. Mick pressed Lenny's face into his shoulder as Oliver shot the men down. Thankfully, arrows were not as loud as gunshots.

Barry said something to Oliver and then in a blur, he was gone. They kept running.

After what seemed like an age, they made it to the parking lot and Miranda fished something out of her pocket. The time ship appeared and the ramp lowered itself down for them to board.

"Miranda look out!" Mrs. Donna cried out as a man with knives in his hands stalked dangerously close to them. The man had long, black hair and wore a blue coat. He threw a knife at Miranda and Jonas, who she held in her arms, and Miranda managed to dodge away at just the last second

Oliver raised his bow to shoot, but the man batted the arrows away with his knives in a way that would have been cool if it wasn't so fucking scary. The man opened his mouth to speak but then Cisco raised his fist and kind of punched the air. The air rippled and the man flew back several feet.

"Move! Now," Oliver ordered as he turned and began firing arrows at men appearing around them with guns (big guns).

Mick didn't think--for once in his life he simply obeyed, and ran aboard the ship. There was a beat of other feet as the others ran on with him.

Miranda shouted now, "Everyone strap in, we need to go?"

"Go where?" Mrs. Jackson asked, even as she sat down.

"For now, the temporal zone," said Miranda. "Somewhere even time itself will have a difficulty finding us.

Miranda seated herself in a chair at what looked like a helm, if the helm were something out of Star Trek. Mick seated himself in one similar one, and pulled Lenny's back to his chest, before pulling down the seat belt (he thought it was a seat belt, it looked like those seat belts you saw on roller coasters. Shit was this gonna be like a roller coaster? Mick hated roller coasters).

"Mick, I'm scared," Lenny whimpered.

"I am too, buddy," said Mick. "But we're gonna--"

He felt himself cut off as the ship lifted into the air. Out of the window, he could see the space around them jolt past until there was nothing left but a sickly green void. Then, all Mick could feel was his eyes rolling back in his head as darkness took him over.


End file.
